New Idea & Concept - Need Input!
Since the destruction of Cedar by Prop Pox, I've been wanting to get back to developing a modern time MD based in Earth. Don't get me wrong, I love writing Haven and dreaming up my futuristic world, but there is also the urge to deal with real world problems and real word economics 
This time, however, I wanted to do something different - basically, I wanted to bring this MD to life by including you, the readers. Now this concept has already been tried atleast once before (to my knowledge), with the RP journal "The Towne", although that died out rather quickly, it was a very captivating idea and premise for me.
Below is the general outline of what I'm thinking:
Concept: Starting out with 5 to 10 readers that will present me with their character's requested information, the MD will be a turn based strategy game, basically, where the reader controls his character's move every turn. Each real life day will represented a specific time IG (in game), maybe 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, etc. That can be decided later if this idea takes off on what the best timeline would be. The game will start in the modern era (2011), and although the game will jump ahead of real life in terms of time and years, technology will stay true to the real life timeline.
Location: The location is a desert island in the Indian Ocean. Filled with nomads, it has never been occupied. The government (or monarchy) has decided to open the island up to the world. It is called Dunya, and the capital city is called Rawa. A completely blank canvas whose development will be decided by the characters. At the beginning, no resources will exist – as the game progresses and the government gets money, it will issue exploration campaigns to discover resources, of then which the characters will fight over, if they have enough power and money!
Characters: Each reader will choose from one of the professions available for his or her character, and, like real life, the objective of the game would be to make money, attain power, and procreate. Given the timeline that will be followed, a character will sooner or later have to perish, so readers will follow their empires, successes, failures, etc. through their character’s family. For example, I choose John Doe to be a trader. Starting up with a small stand, he makes enough money to rent out a new showroom on Main Street. Given the recent boom in town, his location becomes prime, and his customer base grows substantially. This allows my character to earn IG Dollars (more on that below), which I then choose to invest in a second location for my character. At my liking, I can decide for him to get married, and again at my liking, I can give him a child. However, with a new wife and child, comes expenses, so I have to take that in to account before I decide to procreate. Lets say John Doe perishes at the age of 75, allowing his 30 year old son to continue his legacy. John Doe’s worth is passed on down to his son, who starts the process all over again. Obviously, this is just a rough example, as there are some things that need fine tuning, but that would be the basic premise.
In Game Dollars: A lot of the game will revolve around the concept of money. Lets say each character starts with $10,000. Taking the example above, I decided to invest John Doe’s $10,000 into a stand, which was assigned to him for $5,000. Let’s say John Doe starts off making $300 profit a day from his stand, and lets say every real life day amounts to 1 month IG. That would mean John Doe would make $9,000 a month. Now we have to take into account his expenditure: Each character has to spend a minimum of $1,000 on himself/herself per month IG to cover food, petrol, electricity, water, etc. John Doe also has rented an apartment for $500, so that would leave him $7,500 that goes into his account per month IG. After a year IG of saving up, he would have $90,000, and I can finally buy him that piece of land I was eyeing at the edge of town alongside the newly constructed but still empty road. I take the $90,000 and buy the land, so now John Doe has his business and owns a plot of land that may rise in value. He may even choose to develop it. Again, a lot of this needs fine tuning, but that’s the basic premise.
How the Game Works: Basically, the game will be a lot like real life, except I will be Master of All! What I mean is this: I will have a plan for development, laws, etc. that will NOT be revealed to anyone. For example, the city is getting crowded and congested, so I, acting as the government, decide to construct a new avenue. The plan is told to the public (i.e readers), and then development begins. Land on the small stretch of unpaved road cost $10,000 a plot right now, but given that the new avenue is sure to bring development, like in real life, the price starts to jump. Now lets say I bought John Doe land there right after the plan was revealed and it was still $10,000 a plot. After the construction of the avenue, and development by the government owned construction company, prices begin to jump. Soon, John Doe is sitting on a $200,000 property. It’s the same premise for nearly everything. Lets say John Doe owns a tile factory – I, as the government, plan a new Police Headquarters, and need 70,000 sq. meters of tiles. Obviously, John Doe will benefit as those will be extra to his 5,000 sq. meters of tiles he sells a month. Not everything could be a success, however. As the government, I will also have a specific budget to work with. For example, maybe the new avenue made the prices hike, and John Doe decided to invest the rest of his money in developing a new retail store on his property. He pays $600,000 for the retail store, and has running expenses of $30,000 a month (that’s right, business have expenses too!). Because of constraints in the budget, I decided to construct a hospital in another area of town and leave this area without a close school. Development does not pick up as expected, and John Doe makes only $40,000 profit a month, of which $30,000 go off as expenses. Instead of returning his money in 2 or 3 years, he’s investment will only return his money in 6 or 7 years. Maybe he doesn’t even break even.
This is important because although as the government, I will decide all, I will be using a formula to decide money issues such as sales, worth, etc. I will be following real life as close as possible in everything I do and in everyway I make the government work. That’s basically the general premise. Please let me know what you think, and lets judge the interest level and see if we can get this thing off the ground.
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